Arthit & Kongpop ✔️

Demisexual

On Friday, at lunch, Kongpop sat beside me again.

"Have you ever played D&D?" Bright asked directly. Kongpop nearly choked on his sandwich in surprise. "Uh, no. I played some Runescape, though. A long time ago."

"Oh my gosh," Wad said. "Runescape. That takes me back."

"Did you also play?" Prem asked.

"Yeah? No way, you did too?"

"Yeah!" he said enthusiastically. "I remember putting so many hours into finding a buddy for the Shield of Arrav quest."

"No way, I totally had the same problem."

Prem laughed. "Imagine if we had known each other back then."

Wad turned to his boyfriend with a serious look on his face. "We should
complete it now. Get revenge on the quest together."

"Really?" Prem seemed to melt on the spot, a soft smile on his face. "You want to befriend me on Runescape?"

"Anyway," Prae said. "While the two nerds over there fall even more in love with each other, let's talk about you, Kongpop."

Kongpop visibly paled. "Uh..."

"Yeah, I'm curious, too. What do you do in your free time?" Bright asked. "Like, what's your favourite movie? Which school subject do you hate?"

"Uh..." Kongpop's eyes dropped to his hands. He's wringing them nervously on his lap. "It's not that interesting, really."

I could tell the attention was getting too much.

"What kind of question is that?" I asked
jokingly. "Which subject do you hate, Bright?"

"Oof." Bright scrunched up his face. "That's hard, considering there are so many."

Prae laughed. "Right?"

"It's a tie between math and physics, I think. I don't like the abstract stuff."

"Ugh, for me it's definitely gym," Prae said.

"At least you don't have to run as many laps as the guys," Bright said. "Man, if there's one thing I miss from before coming out, it's definitely how little I had to do in gym class."

"Oh, I thought for sure it would be the not-smelly locker room," I said, smiling.

He groaned. "Don't remind me."

"I love gym," Kongpop said quietly. "But I'm no good at languages. I can't, uh, French." "Same," Prae sighed. "I want so badly to be fluent in it, but it's like, I don't know, it just sounds shitty when I try to pronounce all those consonants."

A small smile spread on Kongpop's lips. Not his usual, relaxed, lopsided smile, but one that felt hesitantly positive.

It's progress, and it made me happy.

Kongpop chose that moment to look at me. His eyes widened in surprise, and I realized I'd been watching him with a smile.

"Uh, what about you?"Kongpop asked quickly, eyes dropping down again.

"I don't hate any subject," I said, and then, because I could see he was trying, "I really like school."

It's the taboo thing to say, usually. It's
definitely not considered cool. But it's the truth.

Kongpop didn't seem to mind, apparently, because he looked up and cracked the lopsided smile that's quickly becoming my new favourite thing. "I figured you did."

"It's the glasses," Prae said. "It makes him look like someone who likes school"

"I don't know," Bright added. "I think that without them he looks like a baby."